Keeping It Real

Below is a text I sent to my hubby early this morning:

Up at five with cold little toes poking me in my bed
She needs to see big Sis leave
As Lola barks to get up in the bed
And then I find runny poo in the den.
My  toes are cold so I get some socks
And then off to make glorious coffee
Where I step in pee in the kitchen.
Still love my life though but can you top that?

Hubby's response:

Wow that's a life poem...
Title...
When life gives you runny poo, make coffee.

Just keeping it real folks.

Dusk

Late late afternoon, almost dinner making time and all my little lights I have on timers click on. I am just a sucker for the soft glow of little lamps and strings of lights.

A soft glow from the lights and fading light coming in from the windows. Daylights last reach indoors.

View peeking in from the front porch. I think our homes are like another member of the family. You grow to love them and they become a part of you. When we said goodbye to my parent's home of over 50 years, I just balled and felt like we lost another family member. I still miss it and the sounds and smells. The warmth and security I felt there. Ironing day, oh is there a better smell and my dad barbecuing on the weekends. It was a wonderful simple house that I hold very dear in my heart.

My husband teases the kids if they don't get the holiday lights on before dark. He threatens to put you on the list. Not sure what list as I have never seen one but he still tells us we are on the list. I guess he figures if he hangs them we should go through the trouble of turning them on.

Linking to:
Bowl Full of Lemons
Table Top Tuesday
Coastal Charm
Topsy Turvy
Rednesday
Wow Us Wed.
Handy Man Crafty Woman
TRansformation Thurs.
Home Sweet Home

No Spend January-How Did I Do?

I put on myself a "No Spend January" challenge. Other than the necessities like food and toiletries and medicine, I challenged myself to not spend any money buying things in January while I was out and about. With the exception of the tennies I ordered myself for 16.99 (regularly $65) and the two Target clearance clocks for $1.98 a piece, I didn't buy anything except the necessities.

 You know what? I did well. It was hard at the beginning of the month. After all the shopping of December, I was still in the shopping mode, but as the weeks went on, it really became something I was not going to let beat me.

Now it isn't as if we didn't need some new items but could we get by, YES. Usually I buy new towels at the beginning of the year. That is when they are the cheapest and ours are looking most like rags. 

Linens and towels - January/February and July/August (discontinued fall and spring merchandise)

I held off. I will buy them in February while they are still on sale.

Spending is like any other habit. It takes time to break. As each year of my frugal pursuits passes, I get better at it and feel less impulsive. In fact the other day when I picked up our taxes and found we were getting a refund, I texted hubby and came right home. In previous years I would have rewarded my good feelings with a stop to buy something or pick up a Starbucks. But because I had not been spending and was out of the habit, I just came home. No money spent except the gas.

I also challenged myself to no drive days. Because school had not started full force, it was easy to have lots of these and for the month I had 11 no drive days. My car never pulled out of the driveway. This is just savings in so many ways. No gas used, no miles on my car, no money spent in stores and the benefit are days where I seemed to get more done. It won't be as easy now that my two middle girls are back in school but I can still challenge myself to Saturdays at home or a day during the week when they have no school.
I'll talk more about my grocery spending challenge next time.

Linking to:
Coastal Charm
Bowl Full of Lemons
Time Warp Wife
Women Living Well
Milk and Cuddles
Stuff of Success

Valentine Hot Cocoa

Fiddle-sticks!! Either I or Blogger are messing up my posts. I had thought I was ahead of the game this week with some pre-planned scheduled posts and gosh darn if Blogger didn't post them right after another today. It may be operator error who knows. Has anyone else had Blogger posting issues lately with the pre-scheduled  option? So I am reposting this as it was supposed to post tomorrow. 

Have you seen these cuties? I bought them as a treat for us when I was in Target the other day. They are the sweetest things. We have all been munching and putting them in our drinks and on our ice cream.

Being Saturday I pulled out a pretty little cup with an unmatched saucer for my afternoon treat. Tastes even sweeter from a pretty cup.

I poured them in my old ball jar. I wanted to see them as they are so darn cute. I love hearts.

I think I see another bag in our future.

Linking to:
BNOTP
The House in the Roses
Table Top Tuesday
Bowl Full of Lemons
Wow Us Wed.
French Country Cottage
Common Ground
SNS

Sending a Little Californy Sunshine

My daughter and I spent the day cleaning up under the orange trees. Pretty soon the blossoms will be blooming so we headed out to pick some oranges for juice tomorrow morning.

I just loved this shot with the sun shining through the tree leaves.

It is warm here. Warm for us in January. Been in the 70s and 80s one day this week. Dry and breezy. Pretty much perfect. If you need some let me know and I will send you some of our Californy sunshine and warmth special delivery. Or better yet come by and I will give you a bag to pick oranges and you can take the sunshine home with you. I ain't kidding.

There's those blossoms. Once they bloom the bees are in control and I hate picking the oranges then.
You have to wait until the evening when they leave for the day.

I am eating a Hershey's kiss as I type this but see I was good earlier. Made myself a healthy lunch. Mmm pickled eggs. They are the best.

Linking to:
The House in the Roses
BNOTP
Coastal Charm
Cozy Home Scenes

Comic Relief

Yesterday this cutie came into the room with this on her face. I asked her, "What did you do?" and her answer was, "I want to be like daddy." I couldn't help but laugh.

And she refused to wash it off and wanted to wait for daddy to come home and show him.

She showed everyone that came in the house; sisters, cousins, piano teacher and finally daddy. Frankly, I think she did a bang up job with her mustache. Thank goodness it wasn't a Sharpie. Oh, and for my next comic relief post I will have to share the hilarious thing our big, not too bright, dog did tonight. We all knew it would happen one day and tonight it did. I managed to snap a couple pics through the laughter.

Funny Friday

 This is a very odd post full of rambling thoughts but hey I didn't sleep well last night. Rarely happens thank goodness but I finally got to bed around 1:00. When you have grown young ins' that have friends over, they can wake you up rather rudely. Finally they got a little tongue lashing from me on how the rest of us are functioning on normal schedules and they needed to SHUT UP! I hate being a light sleeper. Above is the sun rising as my old dog woke me to go potty very early. Oh, I am going to need a nap.

I did have the most lovely surprise in that I won a giveaway. Erin at The Painted Garden had a very generous giveaway. I won a new book out Small Space Organizing by Kathryn Bechen and a $50 gift card to Target. Could there be a more perfect giveaway than that. I am so looking forward to pouring through this book. It has lots of how to which I love in an organizing book.

Oh and I gained almost five pounds over the holidays. I am glad to say after getting off the sugar wagon, I have lost it but really, if I want to be honest I should lose another ten at least. I have to stop baking things like this.

My kids actually made these. They are on the hunt for the perfect scratch brownie recipe.

I am spending more time out here working hard in the garden. This time of year I start at one end and work around the perimeter of the yard and clean out all the planters.

It is hard work but oh how I love it. I have really been thinking of changing the way I garden this year. I usually spend more than I should on annuals for pots and beds. This year, I am going to change my focus. I will be spending less on flowers and putting in a new area to grow more veggies. I feel the money will be better spent this way. This jives more with my frugal goals this year. I have a small yard with only a couple of sunny spots. So I will maximize these areas. Besides watering pots every single day takes lots of time and water which is expensive. I will start a few geraniums from cuttings this week as they are good drought tolerant plants here. AND FREE!

Linking to:
Inspiration Friday
SNS118

Perfect

My daughter came into the house after youth group the other night and said she wanted me to see this flower she found on the sidewalk. She said it was the most perfect rose she had ever seen and I explained to her that is because it isn't a rose, it is a Camellia. They are starting to bloom here. February is actually the peak for them in southern California.

I told her they are lovely floated in a bowl of water. She is like her momma. I am a wanna-be botanist. I love plants and studying garden books. My Southern Living Garden guide is dog eared beyond measure from years of study. We study wild flowers while camping and try to name trees with our guides.

I can remember having potted plants that I tended as a kid. I would take a little bit of money and walk to a near-by green house and buy a little plant to take home and tend. Dirt under my finger nails runs deep. My father was born on a farm and was a gardener for Louis B. Mayer right after WWII. Our yard was always perfect growing up and I get antsy if our yard needs mowing. I'd rather spend a day in the yard than anywhere else. When you complete a task in the yard it stays nice for a while. With the house it is different and you must accept that jobs never stay completed for long. I have no problem leaving a pile of laundry to tend to the yard.

Thrifty Living Series 2012, Part Two

For this week we are going into more detail of each of our lives and why we are on a path of frugality. If you have read my blog for any time you know I have been on this path for a few years but am earnest in my dedication to it. Frugality for us is born out of necessity. I explained last week that four years ago I left my job with the Federal Courts to come home full time to run this crazy house of ours.

I had not planned to retire so early, but at 40 found myself pregnant with our fourth child. My mom, who had cared for my other kids while I worked, had passed away and it really was not worth the money to pay for child care and commute into work any longer. We felt if we cut back, it was doable. Well, just a couple months after I left my job, the bottom of the economy fell out. Thankfully, my husband's job was not and has not been affected and trust me I know how very lucky we are, but the rapid rise in the cost of EVERYTHING it takes to live and our oldest starting college, squeezed our resources. We had some savings for college but my husband felt it was better to pay cash if we could and save the money for our other kids in case his income ever dropped in the future.

It has been tight. I have learned a great deal and wish I had lived like this all along. I now only use cash and am trying to pay off the bills we have as rapidly as I can. My long term goal would be to pay our mortgage off early as well. But one step at a time.

Before, we took several trips a year, nothing fancy but nice family trips, we ate out, I bought clothes when we needed them and I bought things for the house whenever I wanted. Those days are gone. I now find myself on a strict budget, couponing for things when I can, eating almost exclusively at home, growing as much of our produce as I can from our small city garden and really not buying myself much at all. If there is money in the clothing budget, it usually goes to the kids. They have far fewer new clothes than before but don't care. The improvement in our quality of life has risen immensely over the last few years. Living more simply, focusing on only the basics and just enjoying our home more as a result of our frugal life now, is the bonus. Money really cannot buy happiness but I also have seen very dear people and family members lose everything in the last few years. It can't buy happiness but it is a very necessary thing to have in order to survive.

We are ever conscience of the fact that we have been spared so far, this fate. It could happen to anyone. Loss of a job, death of a spouse, divorce or major illness can strike any of us. That is why my husband and I are committed to a different way of living. We want to be good stewards of our money and though it is tight right now, I hope it will be worth it in the long run. Honestly, I don't think I could ever go back to the way I lived before. I am happier now, content, satisfied with small things like my kids coming in at night safely and a trip to the store where I can stock our shelves and be here to care for the ones I love. I am so thankful for the privilege to be a part of this series and hope what we share will be helpful to you all.

Please visit Brenda at Cozy Little House, Claudia of Mockingbird Hill Cottage, Jen at Muddy Boot Dreams  and Diane of Lavender Dreams and see what the other bloggers in this series are up to.

Linking to:
Katherine's Corner
Time Travel Thursday
The Charm of Home
Common Ground
Weekend Whatever
Show and Tell Friday
SNS 118
Masterpiece Monday
Weekend Whatever
Homestead Barn Hop
Bowl Full of Lemons

Necessary Lighting

I was in desperate need of lighting for the top of our piano. Have you seen the prices of lamps these days? I just wasn't going to pay full price for one. Remember my budget of $0 for decorating? I then remembered the  unused lamp squirreled away in the girls' room

My husband bought this lamp at Target about 15 years ago. The colors match perfectly. It isn't really very cozy looking but this room has some deeper colors and it goes really well. 

And the price, perfect at $0. I guess this is a case of never get rid of anything cause you might use it again.

A thrift store mat covers a big scratch on this very very old piano.

I love the color of these candles but I dropped them and now this poor thing is broken. Uh-oh.

My old compote was my parents. Candle sticks from the Goodwill. More decorating on not even a dime.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
Organizing Party
Success U
Beach Cottage
Women Living Well
Transformation Thurs.
It's Overflowing
Thrifty Thursday
The Tablescaper

Blogging Is Like a Dating Website

One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was up late sitting in bed and reading my e-mails. I had received one from Debby from Canada. What she wrote and said in that e-mail had me in tears. She is not a blogger but has been following my blog for some time and described how much she had identified with some of my life's path like the loss of a mother, raising a young one in your later years. Anyway, I won't get into details but somehow for her, things I had said in my posts just clicked. We clicked. I was very moved by her words and how much she remembered about my posts from the past. She sent this calendar to me based on the cover and how much it reminded her of the post I did on my husband's old workboots and how I planted flowers in them after he finally got a new pair. Wow! I mean how awesome is that. I get so much more than I could ever give on this blog. You all offer me such encouragement and fellowship.

She was so sweet to go through the trouble to send me this package with a wonderful note and enclosed a recipe I am wanting to try. This is how I feel blogging is similar to dating websites. You see blogs and you find out what a person is like and similarities to you. Things in common, kindred spirits and all that. It weeds out the folks you just have nothing in common with and sometimes you just have a match. Someone has said something you can totally relate with and a bond is formed. Am I off the deep end here? Maybe. But I have corresponded and met with some really terrific women through this journey of blogging. I just want to regularly say thanks. Thank you Debby and thanks to my blogging friends.

Linking to:
Wow Us Wed.
Seasonal Sundays

Are You a Prepper?

This is actually a term that is new to me. I found it researching prices on the internet. A prepper is someone who is driven to prepare for disasters that can leave you without resources for an extended period of time. Some are worried about natural disasters, our countries economic future, terrorist attack or a sudden risen in inflation brought on by a run on the banks or an economic collapse. Some sort of cataclysm that can end our way of attaining food, keeping our house powered and food preserved, utilities running. You get the picture.

My husband and I are fast becoming preppers. Now before you think I have gone off the deep end, let me give you our reasons. I believe at any time we could have a very large earthquake where we live. In the nineties, we had our last big earthquake here. It was sizable and caused a  lot of property damage. Freeways collapsed and we know some people injured. Now that was not a huge earthquake. One of just a slightly larger magnitude could cripple our area. Damaged water lines, loss of power, roads not drivable are all a possibility.

It has been on our hearts for over a year now that we need to really get prepared. About a year ago we had a Mylar balloon hit a line in our backyard which cause a major outage that lasted two days. Because we are campers we had a generator. From our small generator we were able to run a TV, lamp, refrigerator and power are phones and computer. Our neighbors all wondered how we had a light on and our TV running. We saw then how bleak things can become very quickly. Only two days is not a long time but what if it were a week or two? Also, because we are campers we had lanterns and lots of flashlights. We were able to run our propane lantern out front for our daughter coming home late and I was able to take a battery operated lantern to our neighbor who is bed-ridden and had only a flash light and who's helper had gone home for the night. I could not imagine her in the total dark all night with nothing to see with. She was so thankful to have it until the sun came up in the morning.

Anyway, I am going to share with you our journey to become prepared for any disaster, natural or man made. Do you know that grocery store shelves can be completely cleared in a matter of hours. What if trucks cannot get through? We cannot rely on others to care for us or the government to be there if a disaster occurs. We have decided to use some of our tax return this year to begin our survival preparations. I have already started buying more water at the market and I really want to get our pantry stocked for a minimum of a month or more preferably. I want to be able to feed us without outside help for an extended period of time.

I will also share the other steps we are taking to keeping our house running in the event of an emergency. I have a husband that is often very far from home and if something occurred while he was away, I need to be able to hunker down and care for my kids as well as keep them safe until he got home or things returned to normal. We figure it is all money that will be well spent as we will of course eat the food and rotate it but also the peace of mind it will bring is what we are both after. We are both sensible people and if something is on our hearts as this has been, there must be a reason. It is time for action and I am glad we are finally going to complete this task.

Linking to:
Homemaker on a Dime
Simply Sweet
a bowl full of lemons
Coastal Charm
Titus 2sday
Wow Us Wed.
Raising Homemakers

Rainy Day and Giveaway Winner

We are finally getting some much needed rain here. I love to wake up to the sound when I know I don't have to go anywhere. The house remains dark on these dreary days so to make it more cozy I go around and plug in all my little lamps.

I am going to bake our bread this week.  I am challenging myself to spend as little as possible on groceries for this week. A few minutes of extra effort making things from scratch can really help keep  me out of the store. When my daughter was eating pb&j on a hot dog bun this morning I figured it was time to make some good bread.

So the dogs and cats and my two youngest and I will stay in and dry and enjoy a fresh slice of bread with butter and jam later. Oh that is really one of life's pleasures.

Okay onto the winner of my giveaway. I used random generator and the winner was #28, Vicky from Mess for Less.  Congrats Vicky and thanks to everyone who played along with me.

Red Cabbage Salad

This is my adaptation of a salad from a famous restaurant in these parts. It is easy, inexpensive and tasty. Always a hit when I take it to parties and my 14 year olds favorite salad.

Red Cabbage Salad
Finely shred or chop a bowl full of red cabbage. The salad will reduce once you put the marinade on and it sits for a while.

For a big bowl like this I add (and this is a rough estimate) 1/3 cup of oil and a 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar. Add about a half teaspoon of salt and a few dashes of garlic powder. I add a little more of the vinegar if I think it needs it and salt if needed. Just toss real well and taste. You need to toss it a couple of times in the fridge. It is best if you make it the day before but at the very least make it in the morning of the day you are serving it. The longer it marinades the better.

Linking to:
Nifty Thrifty Things
Sundae Scoop
BNOTP
The House in the Roses
BoogieBoard Cottage
Everything Under the Moon
Bowl full of lemons

Aahhh.....

I am breathing a collective sigh of relief. You know I have had a bumpy week. Started with my girly getting her wisdom teeth removed rather unexpectedly and then some complications that made the week worrisome and stressful and needing another visit to the oral surgeon. The week ended today with the memorial for my sister in law's daughter who passed away at the end of December. I was dreading it as most do when you know you have to go to something sad. Sad but necessary. My brother needed family there and my sister in law needed support. Her daughter was 48 and left behind six kids two of which are not even 18 yet. But you know, it was a very nice celebration of her life and we all shared a lot of good food and spent time as families do in these situations. As we drove away I just felt such a release of the whole week and am so glad to be home with my jammies watching my little one play in the bath tub.

Tomorrow starts a new week and we have been invited by my inlaws to go out to breakfast so I am really looking forward to a fresh new seven days of girls coming and going, hubby's laundry needing washing and meals to prepare. Thank goodness for the slow uneventful days. They are the best in my book. Now I can breath and oh,  my daughter with the wisdom teeth, she is on the mend and went back to work tonight. I give it to her though, she could not miss clinicals at the hospital this week and went two days for 12 hours in lots of pain. She only had to miss for a visit back to the doctor. She is strong. My sister in law is strong. God bless strong women!!

A Wee Valentine Tour

This is a small tour of my Valentine's goodies as I don't have too many things but I do love Valentine's. Red and hearts are my favorite! I love these glitter hearts and could find no where to put them so came in the kitchen and the tall gent I am married to had put them in this old grater.

I have to say this little shelf is hard to keep the way I have it as my little one thinks it is her display space as well and loves to tuck things in here every single day. Came in yesterday to see my cookbook gone and one of her books in its place.

We have lighted hearts that hang on all the windows. I love the red glow at night.

I gave this heart to my hubby for his desk at work about 20 years ago. He is in the field now so it came home. I love how he put it in the window for the light to shine through.

Like my Valentine centerpiece? Pretty lame but hey it matches the chairs. We eat out here all the time at night so I keep it simple. I keep saying I just need a lazy Susan because we are always passing stuff back and forth.

LOVE YA!!

Linking to:
Sunday Blog Love
Sat. Night Special
Seasonal Sundays
The House in the Roses
Boogie Board Cottage
Girl Creative
Savvy Homemade
Cheap Crafty Mama
Mod Mix Monday
Table Top Tuesday
Bowl full of lemons
Itsy Bitsy Paper